Films can make you dream. They allow you to imagine a different world. It's why I decided to become a filmmaker. I wanted that even though it seemed impossible.
I've wanted to make films since a really young age. It's always been my passion.
I just wanted to make more of a lifestyle record instead of anything else. I wasn't trying to do anything mainstream or nothing like that. I wanted to speak on this time period where I was fed up with a couple things and I had an idea of what I wanted to do.
We did two films [Kung Fu Panda], because the first two films were so embraced by the Chinese audiences we wanted to make something we could push further and since this is a co-production, it seemed like the perfect time to create something that felt native to Chinese audiences.
Nothing in my background has anything to do with films. In that sense, I am a complete outsider.
Out of love for mankind, and out of despair at my embarrassing situation, seeing that I had accomplished nothing and was unable to make anything easier than it had already been made, and moved by a genuine interest in those who make everything easy, I conceived it as my task to create difficulties everywhere.
When I was seven, I said, "I want to act." When I was 10, I realized that films exist, and I wanted to be in them. Not a comedian, I wanted to be a dramatic actor. Films just seemed such fun, and like such a great thing to do.
In the the late seventies and early eighties, I played background roles in thirty movies... Woody Allen movies, Scorsese films, you name it. Whatever was being shot in New York, I was doing stand-in and background work because I wanted to be close to the camera; I wanted to see what was going on.
Sometimes, you get kickboxers and all they've done is striking and they don't have the wrestling or jiu-jitsu background that I have had since I was young.
I've always loved movies, since I was a little kid, but I never wanted to be part of that industry. It always seemed horrifying, the way films were made.
Organizing healthcare information is a daunting task, but it is not an impossible task. We've had people walk on the moon. This is a lot more doable.
When I was still young and living in Switzerland, I had auditioned in Munich for a German film and was rejected. So I gave up and concentrated on my stage work. But I always wanted to make films.
The impresario functions as a bridge and a translator. He or she is a bridge between the creative point of view - which is often very focused on the creative task itself - and the resource-allocation process. The impresario has to make certain the funds and people required to get that task completed are available.
Since we took to the sky, we have wanted to fly faster and farther. And to do so, we've had to believe in impossible things and we've had to refuse to fear failure.
I never wanted to be anything special. I just wanted to make films.
Yeah, ever since I was super-young I had a lot of dreams - I wanted to be a musician, I wanted to be a skateboarder.